Dangerous materials, which are sometimes related to as hazardous materials or HazMat, are solids, liquids, or gases that can harm people, other living organisms, property, or the environment. Hazardous materials include materials which may be radioactive, flammable, explosive, corrosive, oxidizing, asphyxiating, biohazardous, toxic, pathogenic, allergenic, or the like.
Some hazardous materials are dual materials, i.e., they have everyday usages for example cleaning, in addition to other usages which may be illegitimate in certain circumstances, such as explosives handled by uncertified people or in uncertified environments.
Some hazardous materials can be obtained and stored as is, while the production of other hazardous materials may require base materials and certain processes to be applied upon the base materials. In some cases, multiple stages may be required, in which base materials are processed to produce intermediate materials, which are further processed to generate the hazardous materials. It will be appreciated that any number of processing stages may be required to produce the hazardous materials.
In some situations, entities such as law enforcement agencies may be provided with information related to a location in which hazardous materials may be produced.
Referring now to FIG. 1, showing an exemplary illustration of a scene found in such location. The scene may contain any number of materials of different structures, states of aggregation, colors or other properties, such as the liquid materials in bottles 104, 108, 112, or 116, solid materials such as the materials in containers 120 or 124, or others.
Some of the materials may be of dual usage, such as nail polish 128 which has everyday usage, but may also be used for extracting Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) which is hazardous.
Also, some materials may be identified by labels attached to their containers, such as bottle 104 or container 120. However, the label may sometime be erroneous. Other materials such as the materials in bottles 108, 112 or 116, or container 124 may be unidentified, at least to a non-skilled person. In many cases, even a skilled person may have difficulties identifying a material without taking a closer look, smelling or otherwise examining it, which may also be dangerous.
The scene may also comprise machinery or other equipment which can be used in the production of hazardous materials, but which may also have innocent usages, such as refrigerator 132, blow drier (not shown) or others.
A law enforcement person having arrived at a scene, has to determine out of all the materials and equipment found in the scene as shown in exemplary FIG. 1, whether hazardous materials are produced or can be produced at the scene. In some situations, not all materials required for producing a hazardous material are found at the scene, but a skilled person can identify that the findings may aim at preparations for such production.
However, a non-skilled person is likely to have difficulties identifying all the found materials, and determining whether the findings may be used for producing materials and in particular hazardous materials. It will be appreciated that a law enforcement agency can generally not afford to send a professional chemist to each such mission, and that even skilled personnel may face said difficulties.
There is therefore a need in the art for a method and apparatus for assisting in determining based on findings at a scene whether the findings can be used for producing hazardous materials, and which hazardous materials.